Arctic shipping routes: From the Panama myth to reality

In: International journal / Canadian International Council: Canada's journal of global policy analysis, Band 66, Heft 4, S. 793-808

Abstract

Fast-receding summer sea ice in the Arctic has been documented and making the headlines since 2007. The phenomenon, underlined by scientists and the media since about the turn of the century, has triggered speculation about the opening of much shorter sea routes linking Europe via the eastern North American coast to Asia. The prospect of growing shipping traffic in Arctic waters, especially through the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic archipelago, or through the northeast passage north of Russia, has fuelled rhetoric on the status of these Arctic routes and controversy over the pace of such shipping growth. Few analysts question the common belief that it is only a matter of time before new sea lanes will be operational in the Arctic. This prospect is at the very heart of the ongoing debate on security in the Canadian Arctic, for it raises the issue of control of such navigation, and therefore of Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage and the Canadian Arctic waters. It is this debate over control of navigation, often depicted as something bound to experience out-of-hand growth, that triggered the House of Commons to vote in favour of a highly debatable resolution in December 2009, renaming the Northwest Passage the Canadian Northwest Passage, a move unlikely to attract any sympathy elsewhere in the world. But how much truth is there in the widely accepted notion that melting sea ice, opening up Arctic channels in the summer, will lead to greatly increased sea traffic in the region? Shorter distances seem to be the main factor considered by commentators, but shipping companies take many other questions into account before their managers decide to develop Arctic shipping. Indeed, shipping companies are in no rush to develop what they perceive to be a risky and not necessarily profitable route. Adapted from the source document.